Jeb Bush Doesn’t Think He Needs Conservative Support in 2016
And he most certainly won’t get it.
It looks more and more like Jeb Bush is going to run for president in 2016. If he does, he’ll surely run as one of those moderate Republicans that liberals in media claim to admire and respect, right up to the general election when they transform from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde and savage the Republican candidate in favor of the Democrat.
It’s an old story that we’ve seen play out before. The more a Republican disapproves of conservatives, the more the Democrat media complex approves of him.
Jeb Bush is already indicating that he doesn’t think he’ll need conservative support so he’s getting the Dr. Jekyll treatment from Jonathan Martin at the New York Times:
In New Election, Jeb Bush Stakes Out the Middle Ground
WASHINGTON — When former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida quietly visited Senator John McCain in his Capitol Hill office this fall, discussion turned to a subject of increasing interest to Mr. Bush: how to run for president without pandering to the party’s conservative base.
“I just said to him, ‘I think if you look back, despite the far right’s complaints, it is the centrist that wins the nomination,’ ” Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, said he told Mr. Bush.
In the past few weeks, Mr. Bush has moved toward a run for the White House. His family’s resistance has receded. His advisers are seeking staff. And the former governor is even slimming down, shedding about 15 pounds thanks to frequent swimming and personal training sessions after a knee operation last year.
But before pursuing the presidency, Mr. Bush, 61, is grappling with the central question of whether he can prevail in a grueling primary battle without shifting his positions or altering his persona to satisfy his party’s hard-liners. In conversations with donors, friends and advisers, he is discussing whether he can navigate, and avoid being tripped up by, the conservative Republican base.
In a post that explores this story at Hot Air, Allahpundit makes an excellent observation:
I’m not sure why John McCain, who’s happily posed more than once as a border hawk in primaries to pander to righties before reverting to form, is advising Jeb Bush to free his inner centrist. Either way, the takeaway from the Times story is the same as it was in the last few splashy “Jeb’s thinking about it!” features that have come down the news pike: As one ominous line late in the piece puts it, Jeb wants to run a “truth-telling campaign,” a phrase that sounds a lot like Huntsman-ese for “explaining to conservatives why they’re wrong.”
There are many reasons why conservatives wouldn’t get behind a Jeb Bush campaign in 2016.
No one has summed it up better than Kurt Schlichter of Townhall:
Will The GOP Lose To Hillary In 2016 By Nominating A Loser Like Jeb?
Who on earth who isn’t a Bush wants Jeb to run for president, much less actually be president? I could maybe get used to a guy being president whose name is “Jeb,” but not one who embraces Common Core, loves amnesty, and gives awards to Hillary Clinton. Go ahead and read how Jeb slobbered over her while giving Hillary a freaking medal for her sterling performance as Secretary of State. What next – a lifetime achievement Oscar for that goofy kid in The Phantom Menace? It should make for some interesting debates. She’ll say she’s awesome, and he’ll argue that no, she’s merely great.
If you like the sound of “President Hillary Clinton,” support Jeb or any of the delusional people I just mentioned. GOP establishment types, you’ve been warned. Want to get a hundred-plus retweets/favorites on Twitter? Diss Jeb. I usually can’t stand people who mutter about not supporting a Republican nominee because he’s not exactly who they wanted, but before I’d vote for Jeb I’d lick the floor of a Detroit bus station restroom.
There’s nothing I can add to that but… yes.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
He’s probably right……Rino’s been riding roughshod over conservatives for years……even if we endorsed the turd, most any Dem with all their buttons would beat him.
A Jeb Bush campaign is going to go absolutely nowhere. He was a marginally passable governor of a state that he could have turned into an economic and educational leader with very little prodding. Unfortunately he took the easy path and outsourced the educational reforms to “common core” and let the economy stagnate by not providing the right incentives to grow businesses.
The Conservatives SHOULD be standing up and screaming at the top of their lungs “We Nominated the Moderate McCain in 2008 and LOST. We Nominated the Moderate Romney in 2012 and LOST. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and thinking you’re going to get a different result.”
My guess is that he tries to run, maybe places 4th or 5th or worse in Iowa, maybe 3nd in New Hampshire and then gets trounced.
Don’t even let him get a toe hold. Pat Buchanan said Republican establishment think everything is coming to them in 2016 and all they have to do is sit back and be ready to take the reigns -That is what Jeb thinks too. .
I wish those wonderful conservatives would have a secret meeting. And at that meeting to select conservative nominees for president and vice president. And at that meeting make this pledge and then give us all a chance to pledge too:
“And for the support of this Declaration”/Constitution”, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
This.
I was thinking today that even though we do not have a formal third party, we should set up a third-party infrastructure–with precincts, nominations, elections, polling, etc–and have it in-place as we build a formal #teaparty.
We could pledge–as #teaparty–to each other which gop we will back and subvert.
Advice from McCain about how to win? Now that is funny!
I will NOT vote for Jeb Bush.
Me neither!
OK… ever since I was about 25 I have had hemorrhoids Sometimes they can be really uncomfortable and sometimes not so much. Now you might be asking yourself why I am writing about my hemorrhoids. Well, I thought it was a lot more pleasant topic for a Saturday in December than a thread about Jeb Bush running for President.
Thumbs up if you agree.
Bring up HIllary on a nice Saturday and we are going to go with toe nail fungus. You have been warned.
I thought Nail Fungus was a Scottish death metal band.
if he is on the ballot, your hemorrhoids may be my write-in candidate.
Don’t get confused between my hemorrhoids and Elizabeth Warren. While they have a lot in common, my hemorrhoids actually have red skin, which would qualify them for a position at Harvard also.
Technically, Jeb is correct: he doesn’t need conservative support to run.
He will, however, need conservative support to win.
Personally I don’t see it happening.
Two Bushes are more than enough.
I like the Bush family. They are, I believe*, decent people.
They are not conservatives. I will not vote for another Bush.
*but I always worry about the Saudi money connections
“Stay out the bushes.”
— J. Jackson, Sr.
“I just said to him, ‘I think if you look back, despite the far right’s complaints, it is the centrist that wins the nomination,’ ”
Wins the nomination and loses the race. When you’re committed to nothing, it’s hard to inspire support. There is no fire, no spark, nothing to get behind.
“Will The GOP Lose To Hillary In 2016 By Nominating A Loser Like Jeb?”
The answer of course is, “No.” They’re going to lose to Elizabeth Warren in 2016.
the day Liz Warren becomes president is the day I move to Australia…
i can’t move to Australia: their gun laws make those here in #Failifornia look sane.
He can run as a Republican. He can even be the Republican nominee, since they have openly and deliberately declared war on Conservatives in the Republican party. And acted to carry out their threats in alliance with the Democrats. Conservatives have no voice in the Republican party, just as most of the country has no voice in how it is governed.
Not a problem.
Not my circus anymore, not my monkey.
Jeb Bush is betting that conservative caucus and primary voters will be splitting their votes, allowing a moderate* Republican to become the defacto nominee by, if not before, the convention.
That’s what scares me about the number of candidates seeking the Republican nomination in 2016. There will likely be a handful of serious conservatives seeking the nomination, when the establishment types are already thinking about whittling the moderate* candidates to three or less candidates. The only way to get around this is to have a jungle caucus/primary system, with the top two candidates being the final, one of them having to clear 50%.
*Of course, describing establishment Republicans as moderate is generous.
Honestly there’s no sane way he can lose the primary and win the election unless he’s counting on a superdelegate coup as a backup plan.
That’s correct: he doesn’t need them to lose. That he will do all by himself.
The Romney family, the Bush family and the Clinton family ought to inform us about our politicians and their organizations.
Hello?
Wow. The GOP is gonna lose a third presidential election in a row. They are exuding the same cocksure, f**k the conservatives attitude as in 2012 and 2008. They are keeping two centrist loser trial balloons in the media to set the table. Will Mitt run? Will Jeb run? Will Mitt run if Jeb runs? Will Jeb run if Mitt runs? Another three months of this and any other candidate sounds like a long shot dark horse. Mitt has the same Romneycare baggage, plastic smile, and milquetoast personality as before, while Jeb supports the Democrat agenda on education, immigration and God knows what else, oh, and he has the last name ‘Bush’.
GOP: “Quick! We need a candidate! Who’s our most damaged center-lefty with money?”
i’ll vote for him just like i voted for Neil #CashAndCarry for governor here in #Failifornia back in November.
i inked in his circle on my absentee ballot.
then i inked in the one for Moonbeam right next to it, canceling my vote. that way no one could “fix” my error later at the Registrar’s Office.
not just no but Hello No!
I hate the Bush family – every last one of them!
Jeb Bush or Elizabeth Warren in 2016; why does it always come down to a choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich?